Telepathic Matrix

[Nexii]

Yea the reward for winning the game is esentially being the heart. Your ideals get imposed the strongest into the new planetmind. It struck me that a lot of the boredom was not just for lack of being the alpha, but because at heart you're an explorer. You came to Chiron as an explorer. And so it ends with you on Earth as an explorer once again.

[bvanevery]

I never lose the game to someone else Transcending.  So, I have not seen that interlude for 20 years, if I've ever seen it at all.

Being an individual in Purgatory still sucks.  It still makes starting the Ascent To Transcendence a bad idea.  What kind of life for an individual is that?  There's nothing to do.  It's a variation on a sensory deprivation tank.

I can think of plenty of objections to consigning most of humanity to this fate.  It would be kinder to murder them.  Some games I murder everyone else, other games I don't.  Usually by default, I only murder those who are stopping me from winning.  I usually win by Diplomatic Victory or Economic Victory nowadays, which isn't murdering everyone in sight.  Even if I do a Conquest Victory, Captured Bases doesn't mean you murdered everyone.  Even putting a Punishment Sphere isn't murdering everyone.  I tend to get rid of the PSes in late game when the base isn't marked as Captured anymore, when they've become full citizens.

[Hierophant]

Are you against cybernetics and the Cybernetic Consciousness faction in the game as well? The Lal quote about cybernetic implants in Neural Grafting seems to imply that it interferes with one's normal sense of self. At any rate, it seems you are against any kind of substantial change in the mind's abilities, and that would definitely be a big change.

[bvanevery]

Not fond of cybernetics, but the game doesn't claim it is used for the loss of individuality.  Rather, there seems to be a moral slide towards the sensibility of the machine.  Towards 'rational' decisionmaking that is empty of feeling, and possibly of humanity.

I'm not fond of Yang's policies either.  However, I've become pretty clear on the fact that those are Yang's ideas, that he's imposing very cynically on everyone else.  This from reading biographies of Mao Tse-Tung, whom he is very clearly drawn from.

In my mod version 1.43, I am experimenting with Miriam's view of Cybernetic.  Far from giving a JUSTICE bonus (my rename for EFFIC), it's going to give a JUSTICE penalty.  For exactly this problem of the slide towards the machine.  And because I'm moving the -2 POLICE penalty to Eudaimonic, where it fits better.  Why would cyborgs be opposed to using police?  They've got surveillance circuitry already wired into them.

The death of the individual is a question of degree.  I'm willing to roleplay the degrees.  To know that Yang is an individual, even if he doesn't want anyone else to be.

[Hierophant]

bvanevery, you're a smart guy. I enjoy reading your AARs and I enjoy reading your responses. I've read your position on Yang and I am in total agreement with it. He is clearly, in my mind, the original faction leader most likely to enslave or kill his own citizens if need be. UN is definitely at the other end of the spectrum. Others are debatable.

[Nexii]

Yea I think they any increased unrest by Cybernetic would be met by better control. Cybernetic struck me as bad as Thought Control. Whether giving up control to machines or one individual, it would stlll be oppressive. Just in different ways.

They were onto something though. I think of the three future societies Cybernetic is the most likely of where we'll end up. The arts are continually degraded. You may never see a game as philosophical as SMAC created again.

[bvanevery]

I'm not dead yet.     I just finished rewatching The Prisoner.  It's interesting to see how people approached these dystopias in the past.

I'm also starting to think of Cybernetic as cyberpunk, the kind of thing Morgan would do as a corporate dystopia.  This is partly driven by game mechanics, as I'm trying to get 3 distinct approaches to the 2nd half of the game.  I started thinking that Eudaimonic really should be the GROWTH and singing kumbaya with Planet faction, the one where everyone is actually happy.  That the Foreman Domai idea of it really doesn't work, that he's Socialist, not Eudaimonic.  Currently I've got the Caretakers as the new poster children for Eudaimonic.

I'm wrestling with the Data Angels for Thought Control, but what about the Usurpers?  Although, I think I have him more correct with Power.  He's more of a warmonger than a dictator.

[Hierophant]

How are Data Angels a Thought Control faction? I mean, I never play SMAX, but from the description and some of the quotes, they and the Pirates seem to be the more chaotic/anarchistic factions of SMAC/X, something which wasn't present in the original. They are after all supposed to be modeled after "hackers" and Internet groups. Nowadays we would see them more as a generalized version of Anonymous, kiwifarms or 4chan (minus the alt-right implications). I don't really see a group like that going for using thought control against themselves. Thought control doesn't make for good information workers.

[Nexii]

It's probably more Roze's personality type. Though not a lot is said about Roze it could end up with her going mad and trying to control all information. Maybe that's a 180 but a lot of such anarchistic groups can come to believe they have the right to decide who does and doesn't get access to information. Free information for all can devolve into 'no one has privacy', which is a dystopian view. One that probably is a little closer to Thought Control than Cybernetic.

Pirates are probably more chaotic than anarchist. They are unpredictable but follow a stricter command structure. Pirate ships always had a captain and well-defined roles and duties. It's harder to place them in a Future SE as they all tend to some kind of order.

[bvanevery]

Roze, I reinterpreted her.  "Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  No, it's not the greatest fit ever, especially since I didn't rewrite much of her dialog.  But if you're gonna pick someone for Thought Control, who's available for the part?  You're not gonna pick Chairman Yang because he's doing Police State.  Might as well pick the gal who's always mind controlling everyone.

My Pirates actually aren't allowed to choose Thought Control.  They live free upon the waves.